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'Astro Bot' Wins Highest Award at Oscars of Video Games

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
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'Astro Bot' Wins Highest Award at Oscars of Video Games

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year on Thursday at the annual awards considered the Oscars of the digital entertainment industry.

The platform game featuring the adventures of a small space robot was also awarded "best family game", "best game direction" and "best action/adventure game" at The Game Awards 2024 in Los Angeles, AFP reported.

It has sold more than 1.5 million copies according to Sony, which owns the 65-person Japanese studio Team Asobi responsible for the mega-hit.

Onstage at the Peacock Theater, Team Asobi's French chief Nicolas Doucet praised the studio for designing a game that "put the user first".

"It was just about the kids," he said. "Especially because we had this huge, huge privilege to be potentially the first game to be in the hands of children."

As video games have exploded into the mainstream, The Game Awards have emerged as the industry's most prestigious prize for developers.

Last year's ceremony garnered 118 million global livestreams, according to organizers. By comparison the movie industry's 2023 Academy Awards pulled in fewer than 19 million viewers, according to US media.

Medieval fantasy saga "Metaphor: ReFantazio" was another major winner on Thursday, taking the titles of "best role-playing game" and "best narrative".

The game was also produced by a Japanese studio -- Atlus -- and published by gaming giant Sega.

Poker game "Balatro" won "best mobile game" and "best independent game".

For their eleventh edition, The Game Awards invited celebrities including actor Harrison Ford and rapper Snoop Dogg, who performed a song from his new album "Missionary".

The ceremony also announced new games, including "Intergalactic" by Naughty Dog studio, the developers behind "The Last of Us".

Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares -- whose previous title "It Takes Two" won the highest award in 2021 and sold more than 20 million copies -- announced a new sci-fi and fantasy game "Split Fiction".

Ceremony host Geoff Keighley also acknowledged the "sad reality" of widespread layoffs plaguing the industry.

"Over the last three years we've lost more than 34,000 jobs," he said. "This has consequences. You can't make great games without great people."

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Varieties

Delhi Restricts Vehicles, Office Attendance in Bid to Curb Pollution

Children ride a bicycle across a field on smoggy winter morning in New Delhi on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)
Children ride a bicycle across a field on smoggy winter morning in New Delhi on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)
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Delhi Restricts Vehicles, Office Attendance in Bid to Curb Pollution

Children ride a bicycle across a field on smoggy winter morning in New Delhi on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)
Children ride a bicycle across a field on smoggy winter morning in New Delhi on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)

Authorities in India's capital Delhi rolled out strict measures on Wednesday in an attempt to curb pollution, including a ban on vehicles not compliant with latest emission control norms and regulating attendance in private and government offices.

The air quality index (AQI) in the Delhi region, home to 30 million people, has been in the 'severe' category for the past few days, often crossing the 450-mark. In addition, shallow fog in parts of the city worsened visibility that impacted flights and trains.

This prompted the Commission for Air Quality Management to invoke stage four, the highest level, of the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi and surrounding areas on Saturday.

The curbs ban the entry of older diesel trucks into the city, suspend construction, including on public projects, and impose hybrid schooling, Reuters reported.

Kapil Mishra, a minister in the local government, announced on Wednesday that all private and government offices in the city would operate with 50% attendance, with the remaining working from home.

Additionally, all registered construction workers, many of them earning daily wages, will be given compensation of 10,000 rupees ($110) because of the ban, Mishra said at a press conference in Delhi.

On Tuesday, the government enforced strict anti-pollution measures for vehicles in the city, banning vehicles that are not compliant with the latest emission control standards.

"Our government is committed to providing clean air in Delhi. We will take strict steps to ensure this in the coming days," Delhi's Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said late on Tuesday.

Pollution is an annual winter problem in Delhi and its suburbs, when cold, dense air traps emissions from vehicles, construction sites and crop burning in neighboring states, pushing pollution levels to among the highest in the world and exposing residents to severe respiratory risks.

The area, home to 30 million people, gets covered in a thick layer of smog with AQI touching high 450-levels. Readings below 50 are considered good.

Varieties

Saudi Ministry of Defense Showcases Media Heritage at Jeddah Book Fair 

The pavilion traces the evolution of military publishing, from early traditional printing through technological and editorial transformations to its modern form. (SPA)
The pavilion traces the evolution of military publishing, from early traditional printing through technological and editorial transformations to its modern form. (SPA)
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Saudi Ministry of Defense Showcases Media Heritage at Jeddah Book Fair 

The pavilion traces the evolution of military publishing, from early traditional printing through technological and editorial transformations to its modern form. (SPA)
The pavilion traces the evolution of military publishing, from early traditional printing through technological and editorial transformations to its modern form. (SPA)

The Saudi Ministry of Defense is participating in the Jeddah International Book Fair, featuring a pavilion that documents a key aspect of its cultural and media history, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday.

The pavilion traces the evolution of military publishing, from early traditional printing through technological and editorial transformations to its modern form as a trusted reference for defense-related content.

The participation builds on the ministry’s presence at national cultural events. It marks its debut at the Jeddah Book Fair, expanding the reach of its documentary content to a broader audience interested in military media history.

Varieties

Orange Frog Size of Pencil Tip Discovered in Brazil Forests

Tiny toadlet measuring less than 14 mm in length (Luiz Fernando Ribeiro)
Tiny toadlet measuring less than 14 mm in length (Luiz Fernando Ribeiro)
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Orange Frog Size of Pencil Tip Discovered in Brazil Forests

Tiny toadlet measuring less than 14 mm in length (Luiz Fernando Ribeiro)
Tiny toadlet measuring less than 14 mm in length (Luiz Fernando Ribeiro)

Scientists have found a new orange toad species in Brazil that is so small it fits on the tip of a pencil, highlighting the need for more conservation efforts in the country’s mountainous forest areas.

The toad species, measuring less than 14mm, was found deep in the cloud forests of the Serra do Quiriri mountain range in the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest, according to the Independent.

Researchers have named the new species Brachycephalus lulai in honor of Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Cloud forests typically are found at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,500m and a layer of clouds at the canopy level is common year-round.

Until now, around two million animal species have been discovered in the world, with estimates suggesting that the Earth is home to around eight million of them, meaning at least six million remain yet undiscovered.

For decades, researchers have been combing the southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest to find and catalogue new species.

The region is known to be home to micro-endemic frogs and toads that are only found in small, restricted areas of the forest and are vulnerable to extinction.

In the latest study, researchers document the discovery of tiny frogs with a striking orange body and distinctive green and brown freckles.

The males were found to measure between 9 and 11mm, and females between 11 and 14mm.

They are among the smallest four-legged animals on Earth, capable of fitting fully on the tip of a pencil, researchers say.

Scientists identified the new species by its unique mating call, consisting of two short bursts of sound, unlike those of other known Brachycephalus in the area.

Researchers also conducted CT X-ray scans to look at the skeletal structure and DNA analysis to confirm what they had was indeed a new species.

Comparing DNA samples of the toad with those of other species, they found that it is most closely related to two species that live in the Serra do Quiriri.

Following the discovery, scientists immediately called for conservation efforts to protect the toad species and its relatives.

“Through this tribute (the act of naming a new species), we seek to encourage the expansion of conservation initiatives focused on the Atlantic Forest as a whole, and on Brazil's highly endemic miniaturized frogs in particular,” researchers wrote in the study published in the journal PLOS One.

Caption: Tiny toadlet measuring less than 14 mm in length (Luiz Fernando Ribeiro)